Social Neurological Profiling

I certainly am not one who thinks birth determines our full fate. I know personally that just viewing more sunlight creates lush amounts of serotonin in my mind which was nonexistant when I was on the submarine.

To single out specific neurotransmitters and attempt to completely define a person by them is wrong, but they do help paint a picture.

Robert Cloninger created a three dimentional organizational matrix based upon serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. This does not paint a complete picture of the mind since it is missing many other important neurtransmitters, but it can help give a good snapshot of a person.

serotonin come primarily from tryptophan synthesis which is strongly helped by B vitamins. Tryptophan can be taken as a suppliment which comes for Griffonia seed extract.

me and serotonin: In my estimation my mind is somewhat low in this neurotransmitter. I notice rapid changes (increase) in it's level when i exercise heavily or drink. When I was in the the navy (where there was no sunlight or summer) I was suicidally depressed.

serotonin and society: this is the neurotransmitter which is manipulated by Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft and the like. while being way cheaper than those, 5HTP is a natural alternative that is not regularly promoted by most doctors. When Prozac came out, tryptophan became illegal as a supplement but is still added to baby food today.

FDA has provided for the use of manufactured L-tryptophan for special dietary purposes. Manufactured L-tryptophan is a lawful and essential component of foods, such as infant formulas, enteral products and approved parenteral drug products - source: FDA

Some of the SSRI's have recently been associated with suicide.

What probably helped spur the suicide warning were secret studies undertaken by drug companies, made public last year. They show depressed children taking SSRIs were more likely to become suicidal than those on placebos. source: USA Today

people with low serotonin levels tend to be introverted, quiter, and sometimes depressed.

people with higher serotonin levels tend to be more outgoing, louder, somewhat like social butterflies.

recreational drug use: serotonin is directly effected by MDMA and is also manipulated by LSD. recently ABC did a piece saying that the federal government is full of crap in reference to their bogus reports on the negative side effects of MDMA (view Ecstasy Rising). I can say that there are legitimate short term negative side effects, though what legitimate research has been done on the subject (by German scientists) shows negligable side effects within months of stopping taking the drug. Many time the drug is cut or made through shifty practices (cooked off too quickly or improperly filtered) which cause it to include MDA and other amphetamines or other crazy boosting agents. These are proven to have extremely bad longterm side effects...thus even if ecstasy is not damaging, many of the pills that are sold as ecstasy are. This year only weed will be introduced to more Americans than ecstasy. The estimated number of new users this year is somewhat around 1.8 million.

diseases associated with serotonin: low serotonin levels can cause seasonal affective disorder and other depressive conditions.

serotonin effects: - this is essentially what amounts to the neurotransmitter related to self confidence. again I would view my levels as being below average. this is why I feel amazingly healthy when I work out to boost it, or if I take supplements such as 5 HTP. If you have way too much it is just as bad as not having enough. This is why some people who are wrongly prescribed SSRI's get electric zaps and have nightmares. Too much activity creates too much random firing...I could write pages on this neurotransmitter, but I have in the past and will again in the future.

Serotonin enhancing drugs can lead to eventual emotional numbness. The increasing serotonin levels cause a decrease in testostorone which leads to lower levels of dopamine. Dopamine is frequently associated with passion. Also the overly high levels of serotonin can make it harder for the mind to focus on any specific thing. This lack of focus and lower dopamine level can break up romance, as noted by some emails I frequently get about long standing marriages breaking up and throwing men into mid life crisises (from husbands of wives stuck on SSRI's).

dopamine comes primarily from L-dopa, from Tyrosine, which is created from L-phenylalanine.

me and dopamine: I am somewhat a creature of habit who rarely seeks out new things. I do; however, seem to place extremely high expections on activities prior to doing them...mostly to feel let down when they are over as I lose focus on what next interesting thing will keep me interested and looking forward to something. The lack of interest in the downside of events may be a large portion of why I am disinterested with dopaminergetic drugs like cocaine or other instant rush items such as roller coasters (of course the fear of roller coaster may just be based on childhood falls hiding in my amygdala).

I would say that my dopamine level is most likely higher than that of the average person and way more sensitive to change. Many times what would otherwise be a dopamine based urge is blocked by the fact that I have lower than normal serotonin levels.

Dopamine activity can partially be determined based on prior risky activity with little reward. Certainly as alchohol boosts dopamine (and serotonin levels off the start) I am far more likely to do things I otherwise would not.

People with food cravings are also shown to have lower dopamine receptor activity levels. I do not think my random overeating is associated with this so much as with the effects of serotonin, though I could be wrong. I have noticed when I excercise I eat substantially less food. The same also holds true when I take 5 HTP supplements.

In all honesty a single person can have high and low in dopamine activity as it plays different roles in the mind. Dopamine activities would be more accurately measured if separated out the way we separate out the components of attention.

dopamine and society: this is the neurotransmitter associated with seeking out new activities and interest in new things. it is also the neurotransmitter associated with reward circuitry.

Dopamine levels surge in anticipation of something good or when something more rewarding than expected happens. This is why an occasional "good job" goes a long way to make people feel good about themselves. If they hear good job way too often though it fails to tap into the dopamine system. When really pleasant experiences occur people might expect to see a 30 - 40% rise in dopamine levels. These rises are frequently tied to what we want vice just what we like. Crack or methamphetamine can raise dopamine levels many thousands of percent.

currently this is not as often medicated as a problem as neurotransmitters such as serotonin. wellbutrin is used to treat depressive symptoms in people who have depression which stems from a lack of proper reward circuitry activity.

L Dopa is used to increase its levels of dopamine for those who have parkinsons. Ritalin is known to elevate dopamine levles by blocking the reabsorption of dopamine into nerve cells. increasing dopamine levels evidentally is one of the ways of fighting ADD / ADHD.

schizophrenia fighting drugs tend to lower the activity of the dopaminergetic system.

One of my friends swears by BeCalmed.

people with low dopamine levels tend to be flightier and less focused.

people with higher dopamine levels tend to be highly organized, more focused, and have a sharper capacity to see / solve problems.

zyban is the anti smoking drug which increases dopamine and m

recreational drug use: cocaine and methamphetamine are known to manipulate the dopamine system, frequent abuse of these drugs QUICKLY burns out their receptors. Cigarttes are also known to bost Dopamine levels primarily through an MAOI effect. Zyban is a drug which helps smooth out the peaks and valleys to minimize the desire to smoke.
Caffiene is also known to have an effect on the dopamine system.

caffeine doses that reflect the daily human consumption, do not induce a release of dopamine in the shell of the nucleus accumbens but lead to a release of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, which is consistent with caffeine reinforcing properties. - source

diseases associated with dopamine: Parkinsons, ADD / ADHD, depression, schizophrenia
dopamine effects: dopamine is somewhat similar to a rheostat for pleasure. vice measuring the pleasure of things specifically it is what measures them as compared to our expectations. it also works as a filtering agent helping to bring different stimuli into focus. if you always have overly high expectations, then it is easy to fall short and slide into a somewhat depressed state. if things are more pleasing than expected then dopamine can be extremely reenforcing.
some people who were being treated for Parkinsons diesease found new love for addictive behaviors such as gambling. If dopamine levels are overly high then people become exceptionally compulsive with things such as eating (dopamine and food), drinking, smoking, and gambling. Bipolar people who were given L Dopa were frequently found to go into manic bouts.

Wellbutrin is a treatment for depression for those who have their symptoms related to the dopamine systems (or primarily feel a lack of reward). Most depression studies of the 1980's and 1990's primarily focused on the serotonin system.
learn more about dopamine (59 minute audio)

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Norepinephrine comes from dopamine synthesis

some studies have linked increased norepinephrine to REM sleep deprivation

too tired to write a bunch about Norepinephrine. however, I may later :)

"Neither 5-HT nor NE depletion induced clinical depression in healthy subjects or worsened depression in unmedicated symptomatic patients with major depression. This finding suggests that the cause of depression is more complex than just an alteration in the levels of 5-HT and/or NE. For some patients, depression may be more directly caused by dysfunction in brain areas or neuronal systems modulated by monoamine systems. We propose that antidepressant drugs may enhance neurotransmission in normal noradrenergic or serotonergic neurons and, through a time-dependent but as yet undiscovered process, restore function to brain areas modulated by monoamine neurons. Future research should focus on understanding the adaptive changes that follow enhancement of synaptic levels of monoamines in neuronal circuits of the frontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. Research investigating the neurobiology of depression may be more informed if the focus is shifted to investigating areas of the brain modulated by monoamine systems rather than the monoamine systems themselves. " - source

Posted at April 14, 2004 12:31 PM